June's Music Track at billyfury.com

The online Sounds Special feature at http://www.billyfury.com has changed a couple of days early this month as the site administrator is taking a well-earned break!

Our track for June is from our 2003 "Kites" album and is an updated version of Del Shannon's "Runaway". Expect a touch of fuzz from my guitar! No more fuzz than usual from David's voice though...!

The web site commemorates 1960s British pop idol, Billy Fury. Every month the site features the work of artists from both the UK and further afield in its "Sounds Special" feature. Fans of Billy Fury will also find lots of original sound and video files available to download as well as a thriving community of fans and enthusiasts of all ages.

Many thanks to the good people at http://www.billyfury.com for continuing to allow us to contribute!

Busy Month Ahead

The album may have to take a back seat during June as we go into overdrive, starting with a couple of gigs on the first weekend.

Saturday the 2nd sees us at Heskin Old Hall at a Steam Fair during the evening where we'll be playing in a marquee.

Sunday the 3rd will see us for our 6th consecutive year at the Myerscough Open Day at Myerscough College. The college is a land-based college - agriculture, horticulture, animal care, sports etc. so there will be plenty to see and do besides listening to us.

Accoustic Track

The closest on stage we get to being an accoustic band is when I'm playing the keyboard live and Bob is playing either accoustic guitar or mandolin. Even then they are plugged into the PA instead of being microphoned - that's a lot of hassle and usually gives us feedback problems.

But on our albums there's normally at least one track where instruments are recorded the good old way.

This afternoon I've laid down no less than 5 accoustic guitar tracks for the Beatles song "I've Just Seen a Face". We do it live but I'd be playing the Strat and Bob his bass. So - something a little bit different on the way!

I've been incredibly busy at work - the album is taking a long time! But it will be a good one folks, or if not then it won't be through lack of effort!

Witton Park Gig Report

Well the weather forecast was anything but good, but in the event it was quite kind to us!

We took up our usual spot in one of the outbuildings around the courtyard at Witton and were soon joined by an enthusiastic crowd of people as we went through a country set, then folk and Irish before moving onto a few 1960s numbers.

Lunchtime came and it was still fine and most of the crowd stayed put whilst we took a break and came back to let Bob play his mandolin to John's keyboard to get everyone tapping their feet to "Bluebell Polka".

We went back to do a few more country hits then started on the 1960s with the bit between our teeth. "The Young Ones" (our signature tune for obvious reasons!) then "Halfway to Paradise", "I'm a Believer", "The Wonder of You" (gives the audience a chance to go "Whoa-oh-oh-ohhh!"), "Please Please Me", "When You Walk In The Room" and onwards through the afternoon to "The Wanderer", "Johnny B Goode", "That'll Be The Day" before finishing with "The Night Has 1000 Eyes".

Fran and Jeannie were kept busy giving out cards and seling the odd CD although Jeannie found time to wrap a couple of snakes around her neck, perhaps getting a little mixed up? No dear - it was a "feather boa" you were after!

If you were there, then thanks for the support - the rain caught up with us later on in the afternoon but it wasn't going to deter the hardy folk who were sitting listening to us and umbrellas came out, hoods went up and feet kept tapping!

Thanks also to the organisers, to Blackburn Council and Myerscough College, who were instrumental (sorry about the pun!) in getting us there and who were showing some of the animals and other resources used by them in their courses that are held at Witton.

Our next public appearance is another Myerscough Open Day on Sunday 3 June from 10:30 to around 4:00pm, this time at their main campus at Myerscough Hall, St Michael's Road, Bilsborrow, just north of Preston.

Bye Bye Cassettes!

Ah, what memories these conjure up for a generation of people who wooed their partners with a well chosen selection of songs on a personal cassette!

The news has just announced that cassettes are no longer to be made. This is probably good news for the countryside, as one thing about cassettes I don't miss is the miles and miles of cassette tape wrapped around hedgerows and flapping in the breeze!

The band's music has been recorded and mixed on computer but in the 1990s I bought two identical hi-fi cassette decks so that I could record on one, play it back and record on the other, building up tracks (and background noise). Many units had two decks anyway but normally you could only record on one and it invariably ran at a slightly different speed than the other!

No such problems for me as I put the album together. Yes, I know it's taking a while but I'm still doing bits every now and then, honest!

It struck me the other week that the Yamaha keyboard is 9 years old and I won't be able to replace it easily if (when?) it dies. So I've been recording onto the PC all the backing tracks I've recorded on the keyboard so that hopefully I could think of a way of coverting them to a more modern keyboard if needs be. At the very least we could use them on mini-disk or CD for a gig or two. But that's not necessary yet!

You can see us next weekend at Witton Park, Blackburn - Sunday 13 May in the courtyard from 11:30am to 4:00pm. Come and say hello!

John's Solo Track at Billy Fury Website

This month the track at http://www.billyfury.com is a solo instrumental by John - the Beatles track, "Fool on the Hill". Available for download only during May.

Don't forget to join us in the courtyard at Witton Park, Blackburn during the afternoon of Sunday 13 May! We'll be playing a full range of music from folk, through Country, to 1960s and rock and roll!

Billy Fury Song is First for Album No.3

Our forthcoming (a blooming long time coming actually...) album sets off with a Billy Fury track - "Last Night Was Made For Love".

John has now finished mixing the track, appropriately enough, the first track to be completed for the album which is currently going by the rather strange working title "Already Plastered".

You can hear 40 seconds of the track by clicking the words "hear the current sound clip" in the column to the left - or indeed the same words here!

As always, bear in mind that our sample track changes every now and then and may not be the same as the one I'm writing about at the end of April 2007!

The photograph is of the fantastic new Billy Fury statue in Liverpool.

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-lee!

A bit of a rushed rehearsal last night as we set out with the best intentions but then all got held up a little!

We finally congregated at John's house and set up to run through a few of the newer songs we have added to the set. "Sha-la-la-la-lee", originally by the Small Faces needed some rearrangement of words - verses and middle 8s may not necessarily be as originally intended but it does now sound quite splendid!

Bob recorded three bass tracks for the album's "Last Night Was Made For Love" and now John has to pick the best one and cut and paste any weak notes or fret noise from the other two then that will be the first track totally finished.

David was struggling a little bit and sounding rather throaty. We had recorded a second main vocal for Westlife's "The Rose" but you could hear his throat a little so that's been scrapped until he gets back to full health! With three old gimmers like us, that can take a while! This throat bug has been passing between John and David for months!

New Sample Track Uploaded

I've uploaded a new 40 second sample of the band to the website.

Seeing as the finished version of "Somebody Else's Girl" is now available on the Billy Fury site, it didn't make much sense to leave the half-finished version up our our own site!

The latest sample is of the final track from the 2004 album "Kites" and is our cover of Robbie Williams' "Angels".

Download available at Billy Fury Website

During the month of April, one of our songs can be downloaded in its entirety from the Billy Fury Website: http://www.billyfury.com

In the late 1950s and early 1960s Billy Fury was billed as England's answer to Elvis. Born Ronald Wycherley on 17 April 1940 in Liverpool, he became one of the Larry Parnes stable of artists, appearing on TV shows such as "Oh Boy". During the 1960s he had 24 chart entries, clocking up an impressive 258 weeks on the Top 50.

He is most remembered for his hit singles "Halfway to Paradise" and "Last Night Was Made For Love", but his 1960 hit "A Wondrous Place" gained much new interest recently, being used as the soundtrack to a TV Advert for the Toyota Yaris.

The website keeps Billy's name and music alive through an excellent collection of sound and video resources, interactive forums and the monthly "Sounds Special" feature which contains an free album's worth of music recorded by artists from all around the world. A must for Billy Fury fans and we hope that our fans will have a listen to all the songs not just our own. There is a facility to comment on the "Sounds Special" without having to register and login. We have contributed our version of Billy's hit "Somebody Else's Girl".